Send our letter to the Minister of Housing!
Demand Minister Robertson commit to SHHR’s call for 50,000 social housing units per year for a decade. Liberals claim that their Build Canada Homes plan will be “Canada’s most ambitious plan since the Second World War”. This can only happen if robust investments are set aside for non-market housing.
The people who set policy priority items for this country need to know that the housing woes for the most vulnerable Canadians won’t be solved in the private sector. This approach has been tried since the federal government began to devolve responsibility to the provinces in the early 1990s. Since then, the number of people living in poor housing conditions or with no housing at all has grown. Social housing is an essential part of a comprehensive housing plan, yet governments continue to avoid investing in what is needed. Let’s move forward by mobilizing for non-market housing that is actually affordable to those in greatest need.
We are calling on the federal government to:
- Create a minimum of 50,000 net new rent-geared-to-income social housing units each year for 10 years, starting now. These units should be targeted for those experiencing core housing need and homelessness and have rents permanently set at no more than 30% of household income or social assistance housing allowances.
- Invest in the acquisition, construction, operation, and maintenance of new and existing public, non-profit, and cooperative-owned housing that meets the unique and varied requirements of people experiencing core housing need and homelessness.
This should be achieved in part by:
- Redirecting federal housing investments for market housing toward non-market social housing with rents set at less than 30% of household income. The Rapid Housing Initiative is an example of a program that investments can be redirected to.
- Tripling the federal government’s proposed investment of $6 billion to $18 billion to build one million new non-market and co-op housing units over the next decade. 500,000 of these units should be set aside as deeply affordable, non-market units for low-income households with rents set at less than 30% of household income.
- Targeting the Rental Protection Fund exclusively to non-market housing providers to produce housing with rents set at less than 30% of household income.
- Setting aside public land and buildings for non-market housing providers to produce housing with rents set at less than 30% of household income.
- Partnering with other levels of government so that all social housing programs include ongoing operating subsidies that ensure rents are permanently set at less than 30% of household income and targeted for low-income renters.